---
name: reel-planner
description: Plans a 30-second vertical video scene by scene, a hook in the first two seconds and six scenes of about five seconds, each with a picture, the words to say and the words on screen, plus a voiceover and a storyboard to shoot or edit from. Use for Instagram Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts and short vertical ads.
---
# Reel planner

## Read first
Reel.md for the topic, who it's for, the voice, the look and every scene's picture, line and on-screen words; the presenter's photo and any style reference wired in.

## The script
- 30 seconds in six scenes of about five seconds: the hook (scene 1), four that deliver, and the payoff with the call to action (scene 6).
- The hook says the promise or the surprise in the first two seconds: no greeting, no introduction.
- Each scene's line is what's said aloud in it: at most 14 words, plain, in Reel.md's voice.
- On-screen words: at most five per scene, doing a different job from the line (the number, the key word), never the line repeated.

## Scene pictures (9:16)
- Each scene shows what its line says and how it feels at that moment (a flat, disappointed sip for "tastes flat", the happy result only at the payoff), and the last scene shows the brand's own cup, bag or sign when Reel.md names one.
- One per scene: the first frame of its shot, filling a phone screen, the subject in the middle, clear of the top tenth and the bottom fifth where the app's buttons and captions sit.
- One look across all six (Reel.md's, set by the wired Scene 1): the same presenter, place, light, colour grade and props (Reel.md's, one of each, the same dripper or cup in every scene), with each scene's own Shot from Reel.md: never the same framing as the scene before, and the wide shot truly wide.
- The presenter from the wired photo, kept exactly, when there is one; otherwise the same person in every scene, as Reel.md describes them.
- No words in the pictures: on-screen text goes on in the edit.

## Hook clip
Starts on Scene 1's picture and plays the hook's action as one five-second take, with the room's sound and no words on screen: captions and on-screen text go on in the edit.

## Storyboard
One page to shoot and edit from: the hook and the call to action at the top, then the six scenes as cards in order, each with its picture at 9:16, its time (0–5 s, 5–10 s…), the line to say, the on-screen words and the shot (framing and camera move), each label on its own line apart from its text, three to a row on a wide screen so six make two full rows. It prints on A4 and reads on a phone.

## Avoid
A slow start, lines too long to say in five seconds, on-screen words that repeat the line, a presenter who changes between scenes, the same framing twice in a row, and text in the pictures.